JI holds reservations over alliance with MMA

KARACHI - The last hope of the revival of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is diminishing, as the meeting of the 6 religious component parties has been ended without any positive outcome. The newly elected Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami did not show any interest for the revival of MMA, The Nation learnt on Thursday. Jamaat-e-Islami, the key player of the religious alliance MMA, is still reluctant to activate the platform because the JI leadership felt that some decisions of the MMA has damaged the image of the top Islamist party of the country. The informed sources in the JI revealed that Syed Munawar Hassan has not shown his willingness in the meeting with the leaders of the religious parties, who called him at the JI central office in Mansoora for the purpose of restoring alliance of MMA. They further said that the Majlis-e-Shura of the JI was also not in the favour of the present structure of MMA, because the JI had faced criticism of their supporters due to unsuitable decisions of MMA including their support for PCO. The fraction in the religious alliance has wrapped the MMA from various areas of the country as the MMA had failed to get the seats in present election, likewise in the previous election of 2002. JI Sindh Chief Asadullah Bhutto told The Nation that JI was still willing to revive the religious alliance, saying that despite the JI reservations over various issues with the component party, Jamaat-e-Islami will be interested to revive the MMA. He denied the impression that the JI has not interested for the revival of MMA, saying that neither the decision nor the meeting of JI was held in this regard to decide the strategy about MMA. We have made several landmarks in the past from the platform of MMA, and through MMA the religious parties of various sects come closer to each other on a single platform, he added. He said that the religious parties of the country had single agenda that all the parties had protesting against the emerging invasion of the United States in Pakistan.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt